


Rites

by MisterHix



Category: Horror - Fandom, Monster, Original Work, slasher - Fandom, teen - Fandom
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-03
Updated: 2020-03-03
Packaged: 2021-02-28 00:14:32
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 12,802
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22994533
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MisterHix/pseuds/MisterHix
Summary: Five outcast High School students make a pact to destroy their hometown by each performing a ritual to summon an evil entity to their service.They summon five horror-trope slasher monsters and carnage ensues as they embark upon a killing spree against the residents that could end in them also destroying each other.





	Rites

"So, do you have a name?"  
The entity manifesting in the bedroom of Nichola Vaye (Niki to her friends) hung in the air only drifting slightly left then right as if it were suspended by rope. It looked like a woman in a hospital gown with long blonde hair that reached below her knees. When Niki looked at the right angle she could see two deep black pools of eyes that stared out at her from under the hair.  
"I could give you a name if you don't have one."  
It continued to hang in the air making no movement.  
"How about Goldie, since you got all that hair?"  
For the briefest of moments the entity gave Niki a faint smirk.  
"I'll take that as a yes." She said, sitting down on the bed and crossing her legs. "We have some planning to do if we're gonna win." reaching into her backpack she opened up a map of her hometown, Rosebrook, on the bed in front of her. The entity watched with what might be interpreted as interest.  
"If we kill more people in town than my friends, we win. Wanna play?"  
Goldie smiled and pointed to a spot on the map, a small grey square on their side of town.  
"The Hospital? Good call."  
Goldie's smile widened.

It was not recommended that any young person be at Cliff's bar at the end of town at any time of the day let alone the night but there she was, clad in her biggest green coat with her messy undercut peaking out of her collar and standing in the orange glow of the streetlight.  
A car stopped and a leering face made a proposal that had her recoil from the sidewalk and try to slink as far into the shadows as possible. The car drove on with a derisive slur and again she was left to wait.  
It was not long before another figure approached her. This one tall and lean in biker leathers and helmet. It rode a motorcycle that, like its attire, was completely black. They stopped in front of Cullimina Shark and said nothing.  
"Are you him?" She asked after what seemed like a long moment.  
The figure extended a gloved hand and offered it to her. Cullimina hesitated only a moment before taking the hand and getting on the back of the motorcycle.  
Together they rode into town.

Oisin walked through the broken remains of his family home and marveled at the specifically broad carnage left by the mountain of muscle he'd called to help him commit his murder spree.  
"Oh this is good. I like this." He said to the hulking figure that looked on silently from the doorway.  
"We are gonna have a lot of fun aren't we?"  
It did not respond. Oisin felt a tugging at his pants leg, one of the victims had not finished dying yet.  
"Oh, hey you missed one."  
The monster of a man took two giant strides towards the helpless woman, raised his boot and stomped her head with such inhuman force that her skull cracked and spilled its contents all over the floor.  
"Better. Next time, don't leave them breathing okay?"  
They both left Oisin Degrue's household, content that their work there was done, it was time to visit the neighbours.

A cold wind blew through the Horn estate and Richard stood outside his family home staring down the long driveway at a figure that did not look very human.  
It had long shaggy hair and arms that reached the ground. It's skin was a mottled grey almost white colour and covered in scars and scratches. In its mouth were rows of insanely sharp teeth and it's head held two eyes pale as death itself.  
The cold air made a mist of its haggard breath.  
In its left claw it held what was left of Sergeant, the guard dog of the estate.  
Richard closed his hand on the knife and let the blood from his other hand drip onto the tarmac of the driveway. He stared at the creature for a long minute before uttering a single word.  
"Heel!"  
The creature obeyed.

Dark clouds hid the moons light from the surface of Rose Lake. On the shore Sylvia Westling stood barefoot and ankle deep in the icy waters and stared at the figure in front of her.  
The corpse which stood animate and on its own was soaking and black with rot and bloat.  
"Do you know why I've brought you here?"  
A husky, wet sound came from the corpses throat.  
"Good. Come with me. The others have already started."  
Turning and stepping out of the water she picked up her shoes from the dry pebbles and began the long walk home.

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Rosebrook State Hospital was a renovated building, it used to be a Sanitarium, before that it was a prison and now it was a hybrid of old gothic architecture and modern stylized extensions. The whole look was something of a Frankenstein's creation or so Niki thought. The haunting figure of the girl beside her twitched as she stared at their target from the opposite street. Niki's red hair was tied up under her cap and from her backpacked poked her weapon of choice, a wooden baseball bat reinforced with steel plates.  
"Okay Goldie, how should we start this?"  
Goldie opened her palm at the Hospital and the lights flickered, not just the building's but the whole block as well.  
"That's a good start."  
Niki took the bat out and swung it in the air, she was always tall and athletic. Too tall for a lot of people and not attractive enough for everyone else. She took a moment to wipe a stain from the bat with a tissue and lazily rested it on her shoulder.  
Inside the Hospital as the lights flickered the young man at the desk, Travis Alderman recent high school graduate and hopeful attendant of medical school in the fall, was stuffing his face with a microwaved lasagna.  
He got up and wiped his mouth half hearted to see what the trouble was. A young woman had just entered through the automatic doors as he crossed the waiting room to the security desk to check if Dina knew anything about the flickering lights.  
"Um, can I help you?"  
The swing came just as the lights cut out again and lit the scene before Travis hit the ground with the declarative thud of flesh on tile. Behind Niki the security door opened and the lights went again, a hard crashing was heard and when the lights returned Dina had been bludgeoned through the window and strewn in a heap outside the hospital entrance.  
"Not a bad start Goldie, that's two. Let's keep going."  
Every time someone got close the lights went out and Niki hit them. She beat the first floor to death and moved to the second with Goldie, once that was done she needed to rest.  
"Wow, nobody ever tells it like it is. Killing is hard work." She huffed, sitting down pulling a water bottle out of her backpack to get a drink.  
Goldie's unchanged form hung next to her but was gazing off down the hallway as if distracted.  
"Hey, What's up?" She wiped the water from her mouth and stood to peer down where Goldie looked.  
"Is there something down here?"  
Goldie's arm extended and pointed.  
"Alright, then." Niki hoisted the bat and readied herself, the sweat now started to cool itself and make her clothes cling.  
Her steps were careful and her eyes alert. She was certain everyone was dead here but she was not going to get taken unawares by a desperate patient or intern. Most of the doors led to storage, piles of bedpans and compressed wheelchairs. Filing cabinets and boxes of who knows what. Every door was just more junk except the last door. The very last door in the hallway was locked.  
"The fuck?" Niki had to use the key card she got from the security woman to open it. The buzzing acknowledgement of access to the room was like an alarm warning of danger. She looked back at Goldie who had not moved from her spot down the hallway then she looked inside and saw a patient. The patient looked like an emaciated woman, maybe in her sixties, hooked up to a drip feed laying perfectly still with her eyes closed and grey hair so long it reached the floor. The light above flickered and Niki noticed flecks of blonde among the grey.  
"Goldie?"

Lights passed Cullimina overhead as she held tight to the Rider. Eventually the deafening rush of air slowed then stopped so she finally opened her eyes to discover the familiar scene of the town cemetery.  
"Why are we here?" She asked.  
The Rider was silent as they parked the motorcycle and got off.  
"There's nothing here it's just a Cemetery." She called, after him as he stalked his way up the hill to the locked gates. There he stopped for a moment and pulled out a tyre iron from his boot. Worked it into the chain lock and broke it with what looked to Cullimina as surprising ease.  
"Wow. You really want in there don't you?"  
It glanced at her before continuing its march up the hill, passing rows of headstones in various states of care.  
Eventually, mechanically it stopped and turned in to a row, moving with purpose.  
Cullimina followed until she found he had stopped and was staring at a tombstone. It looked old. Maybe thirty or so years.  
"Did you know this person?" She asked, not sure of what reply she wanted or could expect. It only reached out and pointed to the headstone with a leather gloved hand.  
Cullimina moved closer and knelt beside the tombstone, using her phone as a light source.  
"Wendy Stockdale, beloved sister and daughter. You knew her?" She asked looking up at the Rider but he only stared at the writing. Cullimina continued to read.  
"Born 1954, Died in 1976. Survived by father Edward, mother Agatha and twin brother Whillem."  
She thought for a moment, putting the pieces together then once more looked at the silent figure of the Rider.  
"Are you, Whillem?" She asked tentatively.  
The rider's black motorcycle mask turned and looked directly at her for the first time. There was acknowledgement there.  
"You are, you're Whillem." She stood, excited that this was going somewhere, though she did not yet know where.  
"So when I summoned you, you answered, you want to be here for this."  
The Rider nodded slowly.  
"Why? I thought the summoned were just tools. I didn't think they would be actual people." She looked again at the dates on the headstone.  
"At least, you used to be a person." When she looked back at the Rider he was at the next headstone. Cullimina followed, eager to learn more.  
"What's this?" She asked but the Rider only pointed to this tombstone as it had the other.  
So again she knelt and read it.  
"Florida Sprigerman, Born 1968, Died 1976. That's the same year as your sister."  
Again when she looked to the Rider he was at the next tombstone, pointing.  
She read it dutifully.  
"Andre LaPatis, Born 1919, Died 1976."  
"They all died the same year." She said after a pause.  
Her mind began to race a bit, she stood up and did a scan of the next four headstones, all died in 1976. She continued and the pattern did not break. She moved to the next row and the result was unchanged. It was easily sixty people all died in the same year and buried at the same time.  
The Rider had followed her as she made her way deeper into the headstones.  
"What happened to them?" She asked. The Rider only reached out its gloved hand and pointed at her then himself.  
"We, we happened? No, the Rite, the game happened?"  
Cullimina's eyes widened.  
"It happened before didn't it? The Rite this all happened before in 1976 and, you were there. You saw it."

"Why?"  
Oisin's fist shook as he gazed down on the helpless form of Cindy Black who had spurned him not a year ago.  
"WHY?" He repeated her question louder and provoked a wince from his victim.  
His fist struck her head and the dark locks tumbled around her naked body.  
"Because you deserve it, because you asked for it." His voice cracked as he spat the words. Her body held by his massive puppets powerful arms. Her home a ruin and her family butchered. Cindy had lines of tears running down her face.  
"How dare you refuse me? HOW DARE YOU?"  
His hand reached out to her face and she flinched away at the sight of it, she was covering herself up as much as she could but there was only so much she could do to conceal her body from his eyes.  
"No." His hand stopped inches from her face and she looked at him again, a bead of hope on her terrified face.  
"You do it."  
Cindy cried as the large hands of the monster gripped her neck and choked her. Oisin watched her face flush and her eyes go red as she lost the ability to vocalize completely in only a few short seconds. Then as she lost consciousness and finally as her neck bones fractured and she fell and crumpled onto the floor as a ragdoll might.  
He stared at her body, reaching out to touch her belly with his hand. It was still warm when he got up and exited the bedroom.  
"Hurry, we've more stops to make."

Rosewood had more theatre houses than you might think for a town of its size and Richard Horn had finally gotten the projector to work in the biggest screen of the second biggest cinema in town.  
"Oh yes, yes yes yes." He scampered down the stairs from the projector room like a kid on Christmas day and into the ilses where he had prepped a mountain of snacks and drinks for himself.  
"You are going to love this. It's called The Phantom Menace and it's the best film ever made, watch."  
The beast didn't watch, it kept eating the freshly dead body of an usher.  
"Suit yourself." Richard said putting his feet up on the back of the seat in front of him.  
The opening scrawl played out over the sound of wet chewing.

"Sylvia? Are you home?"  
Thomas had never gotten used to not calling his step-daughter by her first name. She did not seem to mind though. In fact lately she had gotten more relaxed around him, smiling more and even sitting on the couch next to him.  
It was something of a relief really, he didn't want there to be a wall between them. Family life had been something he was thrust into then he married Genie and now that things were settling down after the wedding six months ago he was finding genuine happiness in this new life.  
Genie's note on the fridge told him she'd be out late again at the office. He smiled and thought about how hard she worked for them all.  
No answer from upstairs told him Sylvia had either turned in early or was out at one of her friends. Genie said she had trouble with making friends since her Sylvia's father passed away but this crowd seemed nice, odd in their ways but nice.  
The microwave hummed as it heated his dinner. Thomas did not even notice Sylvia creep down from upstairs or enter the kitchen.  
"Hi Thomas."  
Thomas spun around in a start, catching himself when he saw it was her.  
"God, you half scared the life outta me."  
"Sorry." She squirmed a little.  
"Is that, is that one of your mom's dresses?"  
"I wanted to look good tonight, something special." She was moving towards him in a way that was very deliberately trying to look casual. It made Thomas nervous.  
"Okay, so what's special about tonight?"  
He was almost afraid to ask as he averted his gaze. That dress was pretty low cut and very short. His glass of orange juice became captivating.  
"Me and my friends are planning a party. We've got special guests and a hangout and everything. It's all arranged."  
She was right under him, trying to meet his eyes but he kept avoiding her gaze. The whole thing made him very uncomfortable and he wondered if he should condemn this behaviour.  
"Uh, great. Well, just don't stay out too late."  
Thomas backed up as Sylvia practically pressed herself against him.  
"I could stay at home instead, with you."  
Thomas had to look at her and he did not like what he saw. Beautiful eyes, Genie's eyes staring back at him with an intensity he'd never seen before but read about in plenty of his spy thrillers. A murderous intent sent a deep chill through his whole body.  
"Sylvia, what's going on?"  
Thomas was still, it was too cold, he was too cold, like his whole body was under icy water, it felt like it constricted his chest, made it hard to breathe. His legs gave out and only by catching the countertop did he avoid falling down completely. Sylvia looked at him as he felt the tightening of his muscles get worse. Like he was cramping all over.  
Next his vision started to go but that didn't stop him from noticing the other figure in the room, blotchy skin wearing what looked like a ruined prom dress he tried to cry out all he managed was a strangled whimper.  
"I'm sorry Thomas." She said as she knelt beside him. "I had hoped that maybe we could..." Sylvia trailed off as Thomas' sight and hearing faded.

Sylvia stood and looked over at the swollen corpse standing in the living room area. "He didn't go for it." Tears welled in her eyes.  
"I knew he wouldn't but, I guess I had to try."  
She sniffled and wiped her face with her hands. The dead girl looked at her, lightly gurgling lake water from her throat.  
Sylvia looked down on Thomas' body until the microwave ping signaled the end of its cycle then she strolled out of the kitchen and towards the front door of the house like it was nothing.  
"Let's go find Mom."

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Cynthia Reed Clairemont."  
Niki read the wrist tag again and looked at Goldie.  
"This is you, right? I mean you're doing some projecting here or something?"  
The figure of Goldie hovered but nodded slowly.  
"So if something happens to you here," She gestured to the comatose woman "then you're in trouble."  
Goldie swayed and nodded again.  
Niki leaned on the wall, she was tired. Killing was hard and she felt she might have over extended in one of her swings and pulled something in her right arm.  
"Well that's a bummer. You're safe now though."  
Goldie raised a delicate hand and pointed out the window. It took Niki a moment to understand.  
"You want to go? Like the real you, to move?"  
Goldie nodded.  
Niki went to the window an looked out, noticing the bars for the first time. It dawned on her that Cynthia was just as much a prisoner as Niki was. Stuck in flesh that wasn't free. Maybe that's why when Niki called, Goldie answered. Beyond the bars she saw the faint light of the illuminated school.  
"I want to help you Goldie, and I think I know where you'll feel better and be safe."  
Goldie smiled again. 

Smoke flew out of Cullimina's pursed lips as she frantically paced back and forth at the entrance to the Cemetery. The Rider was standing still as a statue next to his bike.  
"So, there's more to this right? I mean that's not everything, the mountain of bodies is just par for the course or whatever but there's more." She had been pacing for forty minutes straight and was half way through her twenty pack of cigarettes.  
"I need to think, I need to figure this out."  
She took another drag and talked the smoke out.  
"So Sylvia had the bright idea to do this and we did and I summoned you and now you're warning me that whatever happened in '76 is happening again and if that's true then what danger are we in? I mean we have you, you're like some freakishly strong juggernaut and the others..."  
She stopped dead in her tracks, her coat fell limp about her shins.  
"There had to be five, Sylvia said there had to be five of us."  
Her eyes went to the Rider and she had a terrible thought.  
"Take off your helmet."  
The Rider reached up and unfastened the strap about its chin then lifted the black motorcycle helmet off his head.  
Cullimina dropped her cigarette and covered her mouth to stifle her scream as she stumbled back and down in horror. When her eyes had taken in their fill she closed them and turned her face away, feeling like she might vomit.  
When she righted herself again the Rider had replaced his helmet.  
"You're us, you weren't just victims or relatives you made it happen. You called on servants, killed half the town and now, this is what you are."  
The Rider gave a slow meaningful nod.  
Cullimina swore despairingly, loud and long into the heavens.

Bullets fired from the policeman's gun ripped into the hulking body of Oisin's servant. He was delighted to find that it had seemingly minimal effect on him and when he closed in on the shocked police officers Oisin was elated to see the man broken over the hood of his own vehicle and the woman lifted up and promptly took her gun arm from her socket. She cried out and was dropped to the floor where she screamed for a moment before loosing consciousness from a mixture of shock and blood loss.  
Oisin was too pre-occupied with the show his monstrosity put on to notice the motorcycle arrive and Cullimina get off the back of it, slowly followed by the Rider.  
"Oisin. Stop." She pleaded.  
Oisin swept a lock of greasy hair from his face and turned to face Cullimina with a look she had never appreciated.  
"Hey Culli, how's your night going?"  
His all too casual tone was disconcerting given the carnage that was just behind him.  
"We have to find the others and stop. This Game, it's going to kill us or worse."  
"What's wrong Culli," Oisin chuckled "Loosing your nerve?"  
"Better that loosing my mind. I saw what you did to your parents. What is wrong with you?"  
Oisin's mouth twitched.  
"Nothing. They had it coming."  
"For what, grounding you for peeping on Sallie Macintosh, Taking your phone after you spread that rumor about Cindy Black after she wouldn't go out with you?"  
"Cindy got hers." Oisin shot back coldly.  
I made Cullimina's blood run cold for a second.  
"You didn't."  
Oisin smiled and Cullimina backed away a few steps.  
"Where ya going Culli?"  
He hulking figure of Oisin's servant loomed from the dark outside the streetlamp as it advanced on her. Cullimina's fear spiked as it thundered towards her with giant footprints. Every fiber of its being promising painful death only to be intercepted by the Rider. The crash of powerful bodies ended in the Rider being pushed back by the bigger foe though he was not cowed and succeeded in stopping the brute from reaching Cullimina.  
"What are you doing Oisin?"  
"Getting what I want Cullia and not letting you stop me."  
With those words the brute lifted Rider up and slammed him into the ground with a loud and terrible cracking of pavement. Cullimina was terrified knowing what Oisin had done to his own family. She backed away farther but Oisin was chasing her towards the motorcycle with that horrible look in his eyes.  
"Stay back." She bluffed, hoping to buy time.  
"Nuh uh Culli." He said getting closer every second.  
"Stop calling me that." She yelled, striking out in a volatile mixture of fear and frustration she punched him square in the nose. Blood splattered down his lips and he clutched his face with a cry of pain.  
Her hand hurt, she didn't expect that part of it but this was the first time she had ever hit anyone.  
Oisin, who had coincadentally never been hit by anyone before, was reeling from the pain, hunched over and emitting a frustrated growl.  
The hulking figure moved, advancing on her to protect its master. She might have struck down Oisin but this thing could fold her like paper.  
Again she backed up bumping into the parked motorbike with a start. The monster loomed over her and raised its hand into a fist the size of her head ready to smash her like a sledgehammer might smash a melon.  
The strike never came, it was the Rider who leaped upon the monsters back and plunged its tire iron into its neck, causing it to thrash and flail silently. Rider hopped down from its back and bolted for the bike where it all but dragged Cullimina onto it as it revved the engine and began to speed away.  
A last look back saw Oisin and his servant under the light of the streetlamp as they watched them make their escape. Anger and hate filled Oisins eyes as he wiped the blood from his face with his sleeve.  
She would have to try one of the others.

After the film Richard Horn took his monstrous pet for a walk in the park to test its abilities. He marveled at how fast it could run and high it could jump. The creature made quick work of the Theatre but mostly it was hard to get an appreciation of it in the dark of the building. Out here in the light of the moon its grey/white fur shone like silver as it bounded about reminding Richard of an oversized dog.  
"Good boy." He couldn't help saying with a laugh.  
It brought him something, long and slick with its saliva.  
"Oh, gross." He said, picking up the human femur and examining it. There was a few flecks of matter on it but mostly it was just slimy.  
"FETCH!" He hurled the bone with all his might and watched it disappear into the dark while the great beast lumbered after it to bring it back to him.  
He threw it again but this time it did not return it. Instead it let out a low growling sound.  
"Who's there?" Richard asked.  
It was Cullimina, she walked out of the darkness enough to be seen, beside her was what he assumed must be her servant. A tall and broad man in motorcycle leathers and a helmet.  
"Hey there. You out to see what your servant can do?"  
His smile didn't leave his face but Cullimina looked worried.  
"You alright?" He asked after a moment of her silence.  
"Richie, this has to stop." She looked serious but then again he often thought she looked serious.  
"Oh yeah. I'm just gonna pull the plug on the coolest thing that ever happened to me."  
He chided while calling his monster over to him. It obeyed and sat its large form on the grass. Even bowing its head it still came up to Richard's shoulder.  
"I mean look at this, look at us. The Rosewood is ours now and we can do whatever we want." His eyes lit up at the thought of ultimate freedom. Cullimina only frowned.  
"I think something terrible is going to happen to us." She said. "I think all this has happened before, and these servants they're, I think they used to be people like us, ones who summoned them." She looked into his eyes searching for anything other than aloofness.  
Richard looked at the monster beside him as if taking it in for the first time. He scanned its wretched features, the drooling mouth and sunken eyes, for any sign of humanity. It was buried, deep in the folds of leathery skin he saw a hint of something that looked terribly sad.  
"What the...?"  
"I think," Cullimina took a step closer to Richard "I think Sylvia lied to us. Used us to bring these things here and destroy the town."  
"Wait hold up. Lied to us? We chose this remember, five masters for five servants. We knew the deal going in and that hasn't changed anything."  
"What if she did though? Do you want to end up like that thing, serving someone else in fifty years?"  
Richard looked at his monster and thought about it.  
"If I believe you, and that doesn't mean I do, then what happens next eh. What are we to do if Sylvia decides we're expendable?"  
Cullimina had tried to think about that since the graveyard. It was Sylvia's idea that they summon these servants and use them to get back at the town that had tormented them. It didn't bring her any happiness to think of how much she wanted this, how much pain had made her say yes to this insane plan. Now it was here and she didn't know what to do with it.  
"Jed Stains." Richard called out and the very sound of the name made Cullimina's blood freeze in her veins.  
"We all know what he and the team did to you. How the school board reacted. Heck even with the video evidence the whole town defended them, just gave em a slap on the wrist."  
Cullimina's eyes began to water as unwelcome memories filled her mind but she looked at Richard through her murky vision. His face was full of empathy and concern.  
"We can get him, we can get them all now. Nobody can protect their "bright and promising future" anymore.  
Her hands were trembling as she went for her packet of cigarettes and lifted one to her mouth. It took her another cautious moment to light it. It helped her to relax to blow smoke out into the cool air.  
Jed Stains and his whole stinking pose was practically untouchable. Her eyes moved to the tall silent form of the Rider, how strong he was and how despite his initiative earlier had been completely obedient since. The thought of Jed and his getting exactly what they deserved had fueled her throughout the planning of this Game.  
She was silent for a long time.  
"He deserves it."  
"Yes he does. Hey, I understand if you want to go it alone but..."  
"Come with me." She cut him off with a swivel towards him. He seemed to be taken aback by the gesture but his beast didn't move.  
"I can do that."

Soft orange light centred on Sylvia from the street lamp above her. She was still in her mothers dress and heels with freshly applied makeup.  
The corpse stayed in the shadows and apart from the odd gargle of water in its throat it was silent. At her feet were a few bodies, they had been drowned from the inside out and murky creek water pooled from their bodies.  
She felt good. This was a long time coming, especially for Rose and Lindsay Pembrooke. Their deaths took an agonizingly long time and every moment filled Sylvia with a feeling of power and validation.  
This was her moment. She could feel herself rising like a tide to sweep through the town. The Game was proceeding as well as she could have hoped. Even from street level she could see the destruction her friends had caused. The lights of sirens and helicopters lit the night and there was even a fire. She suspected that might be Oisin's work. He more than the others showed a particular eagerness to wreak havoc.  
Her hands reached up and she felt the wind under her arms. The Town would be empty by morning and she would be free from it all. The stigma, the lies and anyone who could hurt her.  
It was cold but more refreshing than chilling really. Only a mild shiver traveled up her back before she let her hands rest and fall to her sides. She thought about who she should hit next, a few sprung to mind but the one she chose was The Daily Word, Rosewoods very best daily news paper. The one that helped ruin her life.

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Not knowing how to drive an Ambulance was not the manner of thing that would stop Niki from getting Goldie's body from the Hospital to the High School. The start was slow but she was smart and learned quickly. Thankfully the late night had little to no traffic to hit her, leaving her to only be concerned about her own driving.  
There was a few close calls but after a while she was taking turns with only minimal slippage into the wrong lane.  
In 30 minutes she had stopped awkwardly outside the gates and was wheeling Goldie to the main building. Of course the doors were locked but thankfully Goldie was able to open them. "Did you get the alarm as well?" Niki asked before they crossed the threshold. Goldie gave her a slight raised eyebrow.  
"Alright, I was only asking. Anyone can goof."  
With that she wheeled Goldie's body into the Atrium. From there they turned towards the Gymnasium and through it to the locker rooms. Goldie was set among the large showers in the middle of the tiled floor.  
"Okay, there's only one way in our out, you can lock and unlock the doors as you like and if it gets really bad then these showers can burn the hair off you."  
Reflexively Niki rubbed her right shoulder, a motion that did not escape Goldie who pointed at it with a slim hand.  
"Oh, yeah I found out that last part the hard way."  
Goldie's hand pointed again, reaffirming her question.  
"It's nothing. I just got burned."  
The hand stayed pointing.  
"Look," Niki tried to think of some way of avoiding the issue. "Goldie, can you just drop it please?"  
Slowly Goldie dropped her hand, her eyes darted about as if to keep asking.  
"God, alright Goldie Jesus."  
Hefting her bat she looked everywhere but at Goldie's persistent eyes.  
"FUCK!"  
She swung at the wall and the clattering of broken tiles filled the shower room.  
"FUCK! FUCK! FUCK!"  
Each swing broke more tiles until her anger cooled and she simply panted. Goldie was upon her when she turned looking at her now without question, only concern.  
She flicked her eyes to the shower heads then to Niki's shoulder.  
"Yeah, you guessed it. They shoved me under the fossettes because, I don't know, because I was too tall, too gangaly. I was a freak."  
Goldie made the slightest of gestures towards her sleeping self.  
"You too huh?"  
Goldie nodded and once again she smiled.  
Niki returned it.

Cullimina watched the lights go by as the motorcycles engine hummed in her head. Not far behind Richard and his beast bounded after them. His knuckles white with the strain of gripping onto the shags of hair on its back and mane.  
The Rider had shown only the slightest hesitation in obeying her command to take her to the estate that Jed Stains called home. Cullimina had avoided that place ever since the rumours started and the people living there started to give her looks. It quickly spread to the whole town and when it reached her home her parents tried to defend her but the damage had been done and precious Jed had too much of a bright future to ruin.  
Her life was expendable though and tonight Jed was going to learn what that word truly means.  
The motorcycle pulled up at the entrance to the estate. Some people were already packing their cars and trying to leave town.  
The fear was setting in. By the time Cullimina had begun to make her way towards Jed's home with the Rider in tow Richard had only arrived and leaped off his pet monster. It snarled at a fleeing car as it skidded to avoid them then looked to Richard with pleading eyes.  
"Okay, you go have fun." He chuckled and the great pale thing rushed off after the car, gaining on it with unbelievable speed.  
"Oh, there he goes."  
Richard put his hands into his pockets and began to stroll down the sidewalk after Cullimina smiling and waving at the people in panic. He wore the chaos like fitted suit even going so far as to pick up a garden gnome and throw it at a family car pulling out of the driveway and smashing in the windbreaker. The family that got out was so panicked that when Richard screamed "RUN!" at them they grabbed their kids and ran as fast as they could without a peep of defiance.  
Richard found this genuinely hilarious.  
Yards ahead Cullimina stomped past cars in various states of fullness as people with more possessions than sense argued about how much they could live without a very specific lamp.  
But her own mind was focused and the object of that focus was too close to ignore. Her mind screamed out for him to pay. When she got to the right address her feet stopped and a moment later the looming silent figure of the rider came to her side. The lights were on and the front door was open, in the driveway a minivan was crammed with everything from coats to framed photographs. One picture was of Jed and the team all in neat little rows with wide plastered smiles.  
Cullimina picked it out of the box it was sitting in and stared at it, feeling the anger build in her head, making her breath get deeper and clouding the edges of her vision. This was wrong and she could do something about it. She would do something about it.  
The frame hit the ground and broke into pieces, glass spattering out onto the driveway. Cullimina took a drag from her cigarette faced down the house as Jed's mother Simi came to the door with a handful of backpacks and stopped to look at her.  
"Hey Simi!" Cullimina taunted. "How's Jed?"  
The Rider strode towards the house, Simi backed away inside and tried to call for her husband but the Rider's gloved hand reached her mouth first and cut her off, shoving her back and down onto the floor of the hallway. A quick and telling snap cut her whimpers short as Cullimina stepped on and the Rider stood like a tower of leathers. Jed came down the stairs with his little brother.  
Cullimina gave Jed a snarl her eyes barely registering the younger boy further up the stairs. Again as if acting on some kind of instinctive desire to fulfill her desires the Rider began to mount the stairway and reach for them. Jed and his brother fled away up onto the landing and into a bedroom. Cullimina heard the door lock as she was halfway up.  
The Rider was waiting outside the door for her. Taking her time she lit another cigarette and blew the smoke out into the air. Somewhere in her anger the image of someone else with Jed in the room hit her, someone very young.  
"Jed." She called out.  
No reply came.  
"Come out Jed."  
Still no reply as she took another drag.  
"Jed if you make me come in there I'll kill your whole family."  
Another silent moment passed when a loud thump was heard from downstairs and Richards voice called up.  
"Cullimina, You up here?" His head popped up from the stairs.  
"Hey, Nice work with Miss Bitchface downstairs. You missed Mr Fuckmouth though, don't worry about it, I got him."  
He waved a marble rolling pin with a bloodstain on it in his hands before crossing his arms under the banister and resting his chin on it.  
"So is this where Scumshits is hiding?" He pointed to the locked door with the Rider in front of it.  
"Richard!" Cullimina barked.  
He shrank into himself with an sorry look but stayed where he was while Cullimina smoked her cigarette and thought about her next move.  
"Last chance Jed. Get out of there."  
The Rider raised his hand to the door and punched through it. The sharp snap of wood was accompanied by screams of terror from the other side.  
"I'm coming in Jed."  
The door broke into fragments as the Rider beat it out of the frame leaving splinters on the bedroom floor and stepping aside to let Cullimina through and behind her Richard finished ascending the stairs with excitement in his eyes. Jed was huddled by the window in front of the younger boy. There was a long moment of silence in the room, punctuated only by the odd screeching of tires from fleeing families as they tore out of the estate.  
"Hi Jed." Cullimina said as she dropped her cigarette on the carpet and stubbed it out with her foot.  
"Culli... Cullimina? What are, what is this?" Jed's mind struggled to put it all together. It was infuriating for her to see.  
"This, is Whillem," She gestured to the Rider briefly "and he is to me what the school board and your precious team is to you."  
"I don't... what?" His face bore a confused look which only stoked the fires of Cullimina's anger. How dare he not know, how dare it mean so little to him?  
"I see." She said beginning a short pacing too and fro in the room.  
"Take him outside. I want witnesses."  
The Rider obeyed, dragging the protesting and pleading Jed out of the room and down the stairs. Richard scooped up the boy in his arms and smiled at him.  
"Hey there." He said beaming at the small child, his joy clear as day on his face. "You're getting into this now Killer-mina."  
With that he followed the Rider down the stairs and out of the house, the boy began to cry and wail in his arms as she followed and met the group in the front lawn. A small crowd was gathering round to see the commotion, momentarily forgetting their own distress. Cullimina stepped up onto the top of the minivan using the ladder attached to the back and addressed the gathering. Below her the Rider held Jed down by his shoulder and had a strong hand on his neck.  
"This town, is ours now." She didn't raise her voice but she knew people could hear her.  
"Your rules and your laws mean nothing now. We say what's right and what's wrong and Jed Stain has wronged me."  
Jed's eyes, now red with tears looked up at her but he seemed to lack the will to speak.  
"Cat got your tongue Jed? You said plenty before, about me and you and every stinking fuck you call a friend on that stupid fucking team of yours."  
Jed's eyes widened, he turned pale and looked at her again with fresh sight. Recognition hit him like a brick.  
"Oh you do remember. That's good. Now you can admit it."  
Jed's mouth opened but he didn't make more than a blubbering sound. The crowd that had massed was still, silent as if they were walking in their sleep. Jed's pleading eyes found no help among them, a detail Cullimina did not fail to notice.  
"Oh, they don't care Jed. NOBODY cares about the victim here. They'll watch as you are torn to pieces, kicked out of school, harassed, as your fucking life is ruined."  
She snapped her fingers. and the Rider forced out Jed's arm.  
"No. Please." Was all he could managed before the loud snap echoed through the minds of the onlookers. Eliciting shocked gasps and even a scream of horror as Jed's left arm hung lip and broken at the elbow beside him. His cry of pain eeked out through gritted teeth loud enough for anyone to hear.  
"Maybe you want to say a few words now Jed?"  
He cried out "OH FUCK, MY FUCKING ARM WHAT THE FUCK?"  
"Sorry, that's not what I wanted." and with mechanical precision the Rider broke Jed's other arm. This time he wailed it utter agony. A broad man from the crowd stepped forward but Richard, who now had the sobbing younger boy in front of him raised the marble rolling pin above his head in a clear threat should he move.  
"Maybe you didn't hear the Lady, we run this place now so your safety is our whim."  
The man stepped back into the crowd.  
"Good fellow." Richard said smiling and patting the child on his head.  
Jed was still wailing in the driveway with the Rider standing over him. It's broad form ever more impressive next to Jed's whimpering. As Cullimina scanned the faces of the estate she saw a look that she had become familiar with, Thank God it's not me. That coupled with Jed's cries of pain cemented her feelings that these people deserve whatever they get.  
"His legs too." She commanded and the Rider obeyed, bringing his legs down onto each of Jed's knees and shattering his caps with sickening cracks. Jed's cries peaked and fell into a mewl. He began to try to move away but with no working limbs each motion was agony.  
Some from the crowd had fled by now and the rest were moving away, eager to escape the horror of what they had seen.  
Richard was still holding the child when she climbed down and lit another cigarette. She looked into his round little face and then at Richards smiling one.  
"Why are you still holding him?"  
Richard let go of the boy and he ran sobbing to his brother's broken frame.  
They watched as Jed passed out in the middle of the sidewalk and his brother stood there, crying.  
"You know I thought you'd kill him but this, wow man this is something else." Richard commented.  
Cullimina smoked and said nothing.  
"I mean, you took EVERYTHING from him. Oh, genius. I mean leaving the kid. MWAH!" He mad the kissing motion with his fingers and lips.  
Throwing her eyes at him she took a hard look at Richard. He had always been loud and bothersome but tonight he seemed in his element, his voice wasn't blaring out of his mouth and though she'd sometimes been disturbed by his ever present smile it looked like he was genuinely happy now. Happiness looked good on him.  
Taking Richards hand Cullimina pulled him inside the house, leaving the brothers to their torment outside. She pulled him up the stairs and into the master bedroom, swinging him around towards the bed and pulling him into a deep kiss as she kicked the door closed.

"Can I have one of those?"  
It was the first words Richard said after the sex. Cullimina passed him one and lit his then her own. Two plumes of smoke wafted up into the air above them as they stared at the ceiling, the lights from outside flickering against its dark walls as more people fled the estate in droves.  
Richard coughed a bit but tried to hold it back. Cullimina smiled and looked at him.  
"It gets easier the more you do it." She said quietly.  
"Smoking?" He asked.  
"Shut up."  
Richard gave a slight chuckle and took another drag this time coughing much more than he did at first so he stubbed it out on the bedside table.  
"Yep, these are not for me."  
Cullimina shrugged and kept smoking. The grey swirly clouds hung thick in the air.  
"This was a mistake." She stated.  
"Well thanks."  
"No, no I don't, I didn't mean this I meant tonight, the whole thing. It's wrong."  
"It's just a game."  
"No it's not it's awful."  
"Isn't it a bit late to be thinking that way?"  
Cullimina sat up and began to put on her clothes.  
"Wait, Cullimina, don't."  
She didn't reply, she got up and kept dressing, holding the cigarette in her mouth as it trailed smoke when she moved. Richard watched from the bed for a moment before standing up and walking to the window. He looked out and saw the Rider, standing sentinel. Blood smears signaled that Jed had been moved and his brother probably went with him.  
"So tell me." He said, "Tell me why this is so bad."  
"People are dying Richard."  
"So? Those people deserve it, they treated you like dirt and wouldn't even help one of their own. They have no fucking conscience and think only of themselves. Remember why we started this?" Cullimina sighed and blew out more smoke but let him continue.  
"Our lives fucking suck. Our parents failed us, this town failed us, society at large has fucking failed us. Now we have a chance to grab life by the throat and demand what we want from it."  
"Richard, you,you..." She realized then that she knew almost nothing about Richard, they had been in the same click for a few years now but other than his dad's a divorcee who owns most of the towns reel estate she never actually bothered to find out much about him, he was always so loud and obnoxious.  
"... why did you do this?"  
Richard gave a half hearted smile.  
"Wow, um. I don't think even Sylvia ever asked me that. I think it's eh..." he broke off.  
Cullimina stood in her skirt and top, puffing out more plumes while he pulled on his trousers and sat on the edge of the window, clearly working up to saying more.  
"So you know my dad, he's like, the biggest landowner in town. He owns the Cinema on Edison and almost all the Lakeside Apartments. Which, don't get me wrong has led to me living in the richest part of town and getting almost anything I want."  
There was more, Cullimina could feel it so she filled time by sitting down to get her boots on.  
"Except I don't want any of it." He said stretching out his arms through a sigh.  
"So, what do you want?" She asked blowing out more smoke.  
"I just want my mom back."  
"I don't think you ever mentioned her." Cullimina said after a moment.  
"Yeah, like I'd do that in front of Oisin, he's the worst. "Ahu, mama's boi, wah wah." Can you imagine?"  
His impression of Oisin was actually pretty good.  
"That's fair." She said to an appreciative nod.  
"You know what's not fair? I know why she's not coming back."  
"Why?"  
"Because she's dead."  
Cullimina froze, mid boot pull.  
"My dad killed her and buried her under the big apple tree outside my back yard."  
"Fuck."  
"Yeah."  
Silence filled the room, the lights outside changed as one of the final cars from the estate screeched passed. Cullimina stubbed out her spent cigarette next to where Richard stubbed out his and walked over to him, hobbling on one boot, then took his head in her hands and pressed it to her stomach. Richard didn't move, his arms hung like weights, and his breathing became deeper.  
"Christ, I never thought... look we can get him. I got Jed and we..."  
"Oh, I already got him." He said pulling away from her top and smiling up at her.  
Cullimina felt her blood run cold and she remembered again just how little she really knew about Richard.

Oisin was found sitting atop a pile of looted goods in the Rosewood mall. Boxes of entertainment systems arranged into a makeshift throne. There he lorded over his domain as his hulking servant stood over a procession of kneeling people he'd forced to come here.  
Sylvia looked on from the upper level with the waterlogged corpse shuffling behind her.  
"It doesn't suite you." She called, leaning over the railing.  
Oisin looked sheepish and embarrassed as he stood quickly like a child caught with his hand in the cookie jar.  
"Oh, Syl. I was just um..."  
"You were just enjoying a childish fantasy."  
Oisin blushed.  
"Stop this." She called with a wave of her hand and a gargle from the dead girl behind her turned into an icy wind that creeped down to the lower ledge. When it touched the first of Oisin's prisoners they cried out as flesh turned black with frostbite instantly, soon all of them were writhing in blackened cracking flesh too cold to flex as it should. Oisin watched as his congregation died in agonizing pain before him and fear gripped his heart when Sylvia once more turned her attention to him.  
"Where are the rest? We were supposed to meet here." She demanded.  
"I, I don't know. I saw Culli earlier..."  
"Cullimina, Oisin, get her name right."  
"Sorry, I saw Cullimina earlier but she..."  
"She what?"  
"She ran off."  
Sylvia kept looking at him, judging his pensive reaction before reaching some conclusion.  
"Never mind, they'll show up and when they do we can really get started.

\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"I told you, it's all part of Sylvia's plan."  
Vicki had been dodging the fact that she did not actually know what Sylvia's greater scheme was for the whole drive over to the Mall. She was getting good at driving and even the odd manic driver desperately trying to escape whatever chaos the others were making didn't cause more than a few near misses.  
When she got out of the ambulance haphazardly parked at the Mall entrance she noticed a motorcycle was there also.  
"Someone's here ahead of us." She remarked to Goldie's phantom form next to her, it stared at the motorcycle before following Vicki inside.  
It seemed she was the last to arrive, Sylvia was sitting on a chair dragged into the middle of the hallway. About her was Oisin and to the side in front of her Richard and Cullimina sat on stools from the food court their servants were also there.  
"Hi guys, what a night." She opened with to declare her presence. The others turned to greet her, Richard wore his trademark smile, though it seemed less forced now, Oisin's eyes went to her chest before flicking to her face, Cullimina gave her a cursory glance in between puffs of her cigarette and Sylvia stood up looking elegant in her dress and opened her arms in welcome.  
"Finally, we are all here and we can begin in earnest." She clapped her hands together and addressed them all.  
"I am pleased to see that all the servants have been gathered and that we are all commiting to The Game."  
Cullimina gave an exasperated puff of smoke. Sylvia cleared her throat.  
"There's one thing I want to prepare us for. We've seen how powerful our servants are, now it is our time to take our place among them."  
Richard stood holding up his hand in mock respect.  
"What exactly does that mean?" He asked.  
Sylvia smiled sardonically.  
"It means we get to live as they do, immortal and free."  
There was a candid exchanging of looks between the others, even Oisin seemed pensive.  
"I don't know about you guys but these things don't seem all that free to me." Vicki piped up, remembering Goldie's real body.  
"Yeah if we become these things then won't somebody else just, summon us and use us like we're using them?" Richard followed with.  
"Or worse." Cullimina added.  
This rebuttal clearly threw Sylvia. Her eyes darted to each of them demanding silence. The others obeyed but not without looks of defiance.  
"We only have our servants for tonight, when the sun comes up we loose control over them. We must prepare ourselves."  
Vicki could not help but think about Goldie and her relation ship with her. How much of it was real and how much was silent obedience. Then she felt Goldie's eyes on her and met them, they flickered to her left shoulder. The story she didn't want to tell and she felt then that even though she could command Goldie, that they had more of a partnership than perhaps the others did. It was a reassuring thought.  
"So." Richard chimed in again "Beastie and all the rest are going to kill us come morning."  
"Yes." Sylvia answered in a matter of fact way.  
"And the only way to make sure we survive is to become monsters ourselves right?"  
"That's correct." Sylvia was getting annoyed.  
"Well I hate to say it Boss but that's some pretty fine print you forgot to mention."  
Cullimina stood "Have you fucking killed us Sylvia?" her anger apparent to all.  
Sylvia took a moment to collect herself. "No and we're not going to die, don't you understand? We're going to live forever."  
"You're crazy." Cullimina finally said.  
"What?"  
"I said" Cullimina got up and stubbed out her cigarette with her foot "that you're crazy. This whole plan is crazy and we were stupid to believe any of what you told us."  
Sylvia's jaw clenched and she seemed to consider this for a moment.  
"Then I suppose you'll be the first." With a raising of her hand the putrid figure next to her began to cough up a cold mist from its slack mouth. It swerved like a snake towards Cullimina who backed off immediately. The Rider leaped into action to shelter her as she made to escape but the hulking body of Oisin's servant slammed into him and they both tumbled to the floor, beating and boxing each other. Vicki raised her bat and Richard's beast growled at them all and sprang for Oisin who cowered, calling back his servant from the fray but it was too late, the monster was upon him already.  
"Vicki, bring her to me." Sylvia commanded but Vicki did not move save to steady herself for a fight.  
"Do as I say."  
"Bite me."  
With a hiss of frustration the misty coil swirled about her to seek out Vicki as its new target but then the lights went out and knowing well the plan, Vicki ran for the exit.  
When the lights had come on again, Oisin was nursing a slashed arm on the floor, Richard was still sitting on his stool and both Cullimina and Vicki had fled.  
"What was that Richard?" Sylvia inquired as he petted his servants matted hair.  
"I felt like helping Cullimina." His simple answer and blatant enjoyment infuriated her.  
"So how do I know you won't choose her again?"  
"You don't but the way I see it, you don't have much choice, you two like to play with a stacked deck and I'm kingmaker."  
Richard strolled off towards the exit his beast in tow.  
Oisin let out another gasp of pain. "We should kill him."  
"No." Sylvia answered, clearly looking more at Richard's servant than him. "I've thought of a good use for him."

The Ambulance screeched to a halt outside the High School and Nicki got out to meet Cullimina and her Rider with Goldie floating beside her.  
"The heck just happened back there?" Nicki demanded.  
Cullimina blew out a grey cloud and shrugged.  
"Don't give me the silent treatment I get enough of that from this one." Nicki pointed to Goldie who gave her own derisive smile in response.  
"Fine, I'm out." Nicki turned to head into the High School.  
"Wait." Cullimina said before she got too far.  
Nicki stopped and turned.  
"Do you know what Sylvia has done?" Cullimina started.  
Nicki did not reply, she only crossed her arms.  
"She's made us her weapons. This isn't about what we want it's all her. I only wanted the town to be outed for the hypocritical liars they are but I didn't want all this destruction."  
Nicki began to think about it, Cullimina took the opportunity to solidify her position.  
"Sylvia wanted us to think this was about our pain and getting back at the town that wronged us but this has been about her the whole time. She wants us to kill everyone and burn the whole goddamned place down."  
"Why?"  
"What?"  
"Why does she want us to destroy the town? I mean, I get it. We live in a backwoods shit heap but if Sylvia really has gone off the deep end then what is all this?"  
Cullimina paused and took another drag.  
"I don't know." She admitted rubbing her eyes.  
There was another long pause before Nicki spoke again.  
"So how do we stop her?"  
Cullimina smiled. "I think it has something to do with them." She gestured to Goldie and the Rider. "They're trapped in this as much as we are. I think we need to free them."  
"How?" Nicki asked.  
"I don't know." Cullimina looked at the Rider and remembered to graveyard. "We have to put them to rest." She said.  
"We don't have time." Nicki warned as she pointed down the street. Richard was atop his monster as it bounded towards them, jaw slack and eyes crazed.  
"We need to move." Cullimina suggested.  
"I can't Goldie's here, I need to get her." With that she ran into the High School leaving Cullimina to wonder at her meaning. Without a word she interposed the Rider between herself and Richards charge. The Beast stopped short of hitting him and Richard slid off its side onto the pavement.  
"Hi." He said, as casually as if he'd just sat down beside her at lunch.  
"Richard, I don't want..."  
"Shhh!" His finger went to his lips and he smiled. "I've been having a great night and you've been no small part of that. I'd rather not hurt you and Niki but..."  
He paused, letting his smile come back to him.  
"...but I want this to happen. I want to stay this way and if that means letting Sylvia get her bitchy wish then that's okay with me."  
Cullimina didn't move, she didn't even think it consciously. It just happened.  
The Rider pulled his tyre iron out and jammed it into Richards neck causing his beastly servant to roar in anger. Cullimina ran to him as he stumbled for a moment before collapsing into her arms. The fountain of his blood shot from between his fingers in angry spurts. His eyes were wide with a mixture of pain and shock as he looked up at her. Though Richard was not particularly big or heavy, Cullimina could only slow his fall to the pavement. She was aware of the ruckus in the background, the two monstrous forms tearing at each other. However, she was tied to the moment, to Richard. Loud, annoying Richard with his stupid movies and awful jokes.  
"I'm, I'm sorry, I didn't want him to do that, I just couldn't let you hurt Nicki and me and..."  
Richard had stopped moving completely. Behind her the sound of heavy bodies hitting the ambulance drowned out her last apology.

Inside the School gymnasium, Nicki had begun to wheel Goldie out of the changing rooms when the temperature suddenly dropped.  
The phantom figure of Goldie appeared in the hallway outside the door and then flashed back to inside. Her hand pointing to the hallway entrance.  
Nicki swore, one way in and one way out.  
"Plan B Goldie, we're gonna fry this bitch." She said pulling the hospital bed back into the showers and taking a point just inside the archway entrance.  
The shower dials rotated thanks to the unseen influence of Goldie and the shower heads burst with steaming hot water. A warm mist floated out of the showers and was met by the wet chill of cold that came in from the hallways now open doors.  
Sylvia was standing there, the corpse wet and rotting by her side. Dark coldness spilling out of her mouth.  
Nicki felt the chill touch her leg and try to coil up through her body but the warm steam kept the worst at bay. She smiled at Goldie again and waited.  
"Nichola? I know you're here." Sylvia's voice came through.  
"You're very clever to hide in a place where my advantage is mitigated. You were always clever, I knew you were more than just a strong body."  
Nicki resisted the bait to speak back and give herself away.  
"It doesn't have to be this way Nichola, the strength these creatures possess is immense. We can move beyond here as a single family, take on the world if we want to."  
Nicki's foot shifted slightly, then back again. In the changing rooms Sylvia walked amongst the lockers, stalking like an animal with the corpse at the exit.  
"Come out now Nichola, we're friends. Haven't I always stood up for you? Wasn't I the one who sat next to you when others left you alone because you were just a freak to them?"  
Nicki felt the bat grow heavy in her hands. Goldie flinched and floated next to her, swaying side to side as she did. Her hand raised and tried to touch the tear rolling down Nicki's cheek. The salty bead of water passed straight through her fingers and continued down to her jaw at last dripping off at the chin.  
"Come on Nichola, we're friends. I won't hurt you, we all agreed to this."  
Nicki could hear Sylvia moving in the other room, the clap of shoes on tiles. Fixing her hold on the bat again she looked at Goldie and tried to smile. Goldie did not seem convinced so she mouthed the words I'm okay and readied herself. More cold air threatened to engulf her but the reassuring blast of hot air and water helped her bare it. The cold wisps kneaded into her legs, they wanted her to seize, become tight and useless but Nicki held firm, unwilling to yield even as the icy chill bit into her flesh and killed nerves.  
Now a grimace of pain consumed her face and Goldie vanished. Nicki looked to the still body of the old woman, Goldie's body and noticed the grey chilling mist swirl about the hospital bed. Panic began to take her and it seemed there was no way out, then the lights flickered and died.  
From the changing room Nicki heard clanging and rattling as what she could only guess to be Goldie assaulting Sylvia directly transpired. Ready to swing at any movement Nicki left the shower but the cold snap got so much worse when she did. As her chest began to sieze and the cold reached her throat she felt faint and full of pain. The lights returned as quickly as they had gone off and before her Sylvia stood, amid a wreckage of junk that had been flung at her from the lockers. A look of hideous fury on her face with Goldie behind her, smiling.  
Her bat swung but she didn't feel it, there was no sound either. Sylvia's distorted face fell and he neck went limp and it was done. The cold stopped, replaced by a flooding warmth of steam. The body, the wretched clasping gargle of damp and decaying flesh slumped against the locker and became a corpse once more, only a corpse.  
The look of shock and horror on Sylvia's face spoke volumes. She had truly not expected to have this kind of trouble with them. Nicki looked down at the body of the girl who she once would have called her best, if only, friend. It hurt to think of her being dead, even if she had tried to kill her moments before. Things became distorted, the floor seemed so far away now and it was hard to focus on where she was. Her hand reached out for the locker to steady herself and she found the cold metal inviting. Pressing herself against it seemed to help center herself and she took a few breaths with her eyes closed.  
When Nicki opened them again she saw Goldie floating before her with a look of concern on her face.  
"I'm okay Goldie, I am."  
Digging deep she pulled herself out of herself and came back to reality and knew she had to look to their safety next.  
"We're not safe here anymore." She told Goldie as she went into the showers to get her body. Her leg still hurt enough to give her a limp but she knew that Goldie could not mover herself so she persisted and pushed the old woman's body out into the hall when she heard a great crashing that startled her into stopping. The double doors of the school entrance had been shattered off their hinges.

The Beast had slammed The Rider through the doors, tumbling together in a frenzy of teeth and claws. The Rider was at disadvantage clearly, on its back trying to keep the massive jaws from clamping about his helmeted head. they skidded along the smooth floor and into a line of lockers that bordered the hallway between the classroom doors.  
Splinters and glass lay strewn about the floor from their explosive entrance.  
Nicki made a detour back down the hallway and put herself between the combat and Godlie's body.  
"Fuck!"

Outside the school, Cullimina was still shocked at what had happened to Richard. The utter unreality of the moment was still locking her to him so much she barely registered when Thomas appeared on the scene.  
He stood over them with his own monstrous figure looming and felt a well of anger build in his chest.  
"Why him?"  
Cullimina's blurred eyes could barely make Thomas out.  
"What?"  
Thomas' hand made an indignant fist.  
"Why cry for HIM?" Thomas' voice dripped with venom.  
Cullimina didn't catch the meaning behind it.  
"Why cry... he's dead Thomas, Richard is dead!"  
Thomas affected indifference.  
"So? We're still alive, shouldn't you be focusing on that?"  
There was something in his voice that sounded almost like genuine confidence and it made her skin crawl.  
"You mean focus on you?"  
She could not help but give her words a derisive tone. Thomas had frozen in indecision so she struck again.  
"You're unbelievable. Did you ever care about anyone other than your own fucking self?"  
He took a step back but his monolith of muscle stayed.  
"You are a creep Thomas, you've always been a creep and the only thing that's ever going to change is you're going to be an even bigger creep one day."  
Thomas went red under the light of the streetlamp. He tried to puff up his chest in protest.  
"I've killed, I've done..."  
"That thing has killed, you fucking watched didn't you?"  
The monster took a step between them.  
"Do you need this thing to keep you safe from a crying bloodied girl?" She laughed.  
"I... no. Get back." Thomas said with words he didn't trust. The thing obeyed and moved to the other side of the street but kept looking at them.  
"See?" He argued meekly, "I've got this."  
"You've got shit!" Cullimina said getting up, covered in blood and stalking towards him.  
He looked so fearful but what bravado he could muster kept Thomas from fleeing. However when Cullimina displayed Richards knife that she had taken from his body only a moment ago his eyes went wide and his face paled.  
"I could kill you now and you'd have to call your towering freak over there to stop me because you're too much of a fucking pussy!"  
Punctuating the last words with a heavy shove Cullimina knocked Thomas over and he wimpered under her.  
"RUN YOU FUCKING WEASEL!"  
Thomas ran and his monstrous servant followed leaving Cullimina standing in the street shaking from rage and grief.

Inside the School hallways the intense battle of the Summons was stopping Niki from escaping with Goldie.  
The howling Beast had the Rider in its massive hands and was crashing him against lockers over and over. Its deafening screech echoing through the hallways.  
Niki watched as the Rider was hammered again and again as the Beast seemed never to tire of its assault. Often the Rider made attempts to break free or attack back but it had dropped its tire iron and thus had little that would effect such a monster as the Beast.  
Niki saw her chance and took it as the edged further away from them, then she wheeled Goldie to the exit and saw her phantom floating at the entrance to the building with her arms out wide in protest.  
"Goldie? What are... what is it?" Niki asked, anxious to get away from the havok that was still very close to them.  
In reply Goldie only raised a hand to point at the discarded tyre iron that lay not a foot away from Niki's feet.  
"Oh you've got to be kidding me." Niki protested but Goldie met her gaze hard and unyielding.  
"FINE!" Niki yelled and with a kick sent the tire iron sliding towards the brawl then drew her own bat and hurled it with all her might at the Beast.  
It struck the flank of the creature and it turned, ceasing its assault on the Rider, to leer at her with slavering jaws and crazed eyes. Niki felt the gaze of death staring at her through its pale spheres. She took a steb back and bumped into the trolley giving herself a start which the Beast used as a signal to pounce, or begin to, since the Rider had grappled its head and was stabbing it in its horrid face with the tire iron. The Beast thrashed about, slamming its lean and powerful limbs into the walls and floor as it attempted to throw the beaten body of the Rider from its back. Niki saw an opportunity and dashed to pick up her bat, giving the Beast three weighty smacks on its back and legs while the Rider kept a relentless hold of its head.  
The Beast roared in pain and rage under the onslaught of its foes and with an errant flail it whacked Niki straight down the hallway. At the same moment the Riders attacks found their target and he pierced the Beast through its head sending a spurt of blood through the air as the Beast gave out a final cry off defiance before slumping forward tothe ground.  
Niki got up and clutching her arm she hoped it was not broken. Goldie floated next to the Rider with visible concern on her face. The Rider now lay before the dead Beast, sprawled out and motionless.  
Before Niki could move on or process the events Cullimina presented herself at the entrance.  
"So this is what you meant by "the real Goldie", neat." She said, staring catatonic at the figure in the trolley.  
"Are you okay?" Niki asked, vaguely gesturing to the blood soaked clothes and knife.  
"Um, yeah this is... it's not mine." Cullimina answered.  
Niki did some quick math.  
"I'm sorry, Richard was..."  
"Annoying." Cullimina blurted, visibly trying to keep herself together.  
"Yeah. He really was." Niki said, walking over to her friend and gave her a hug. It was along moment of not sobbing before Cullimina stopped struggling and accepted the moment.  
The sound of a woman's cough disturbed them and they saw in amazement that the body of Goldie was beginning to stir. Her eyes opened and her fingers twitched.  
"No way." Niki stated, "Does that mean it's over?"  
Cullimina looked to the Rider and knew it was not going to get up again, tough as they were immortality was not a part of their makeup. She could not look at the Beast.  
"I think so."

Outside the first rays of sunlight began o peak over the hills and bathe Rosewood in soft yellow light.  
The chill lifted from the air and in a street some distance from where two friends and a recently freed woman from a coma were thinking how to start their lives again a very different kind of change was happening.  
Oisin was coughing hard.  
He called out fro his pet monstrosity but it had fled him when his fit began. He coughed so hard he hunched over and had to put his hand out on the pavement to stop himself from falling onto his face. A thick black sludge began to leak from his mouth and nose, slowly at first, then more and more as he coughed harder and harder. The coughs turned to wretches and eventually he was vomiting the dark gunk as he felt himself sink into it. the ever expanding pool of his vomit was beginning to eat him alive. He felt the pain wrack him from without and within until he was consumed in all parts by the ichor and seeped through the drains into the sewer system to await a new master to summon him.  
Oisin Degrue was no more.


End file.
